Nicolas-Joseph Billot de La Ferrière, stage-name Florence (4 March 1749,
Léry - 25 June 1816,
rue Traversière,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French actor.
He began his career in 1771 at the
Théâtre de la Monnaie
The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (, ; , ; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National Opera of Belgium, a federal institution, takes the name of this theatre in which it is ho ...
in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, and moved to
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
in 1777 in
Mme Montansier's company. Also in 1777 he made his anonymous début at the
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française () or Théâtre-Français () is one of the few state theatres in France. Founded in 1680, it is the oldest active theatre company in the world. Established as a French state-controlled entity in 1995, it is the only state ...
, but was only received into its company after a second on 7 May 1778. He was admitted as a
sociétaire in April 1779, and devoted the next 25 years to the Comédie-Française's interests, making them forget his lack of talent. Imprisoned with several other actors during the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, he owed his safe release to
La Bussière. He retired in 1804 and died in 1816.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Florence (Actor)
1749 births
1816 deaths
Sociétaires of the Comédie-Française
French male stage actors
18th-century French male actors
19th-century French male actors